Critical Bioethics

Beyond the Social Science Critique of Applied Ethics

Dados Bibliográficos

ID23322758
AutoresAdam Hedgecoe (0000-0002-8965-3889, University of Sussex, autor correspondente), Adam M Hedgecoe
Ano2004
Volume18
Fascículo2
Páginas120-143
Data de publicação2004-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoBioethics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0269-9702 • E-ISSN: 1467-8519
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-8519.2004.00385.x
PMID15146853
OpenAlexW2037976233
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas82
Referências citadas9

This article attempts to show a way in which social science research can contribute in a meaningful and equitable way to philosophical bioethics. It builds on the social science critique of bioethics present in the work of authors such as Renée Fox, Barry Hoffmaster and Charles Bosk, proposing the characteristics of a critical bioethics that would take social science seriously. The social science critique claims that traditional philosophical bioethics gives a dominant role to idealised, rational thought, and tends to exclude social and cultural factors, relegating them to the status of irrelevancies. Another problem is the way in which bioethics assumes social reality divides down the same lines/categories as philosophical theories. Critical bioethics requires bioethicists to root their enquires in empirical research, to challenge theories using evidence, to be reflexive and to be sceptical about the claims of other bioethicists, scientists and clinicians. The aim is to produce a rigorous normative analysis of lived moral experience.

Bioethics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Normative · Political science · Reflexivity · Skepticism · Social science · Sociology · Biomedical Ethics and Regulation · Ethics in Clinical Research · Ethics in medical practice · Law · Philosophy